The U.S. Supreme Court on June 4 ruled that drugmaker Hikma Pharmaceuticals’ generic version of Amarin Pharma’s cardiovascular medication Vascepa did not infringe Amarin’s patents, in a case that centered on the use of “skinny labels” for generic drugs.
Pharmaceuticals can be protected by patents covering both the drug’s active ingredient and specific methods of using it. “Skinny labels,” meant to encourage generic competition, are intended to allow generic drugmakers to avoid patent lawsuits if the label of their generic omits infringing uses of the brand-name drug it replicates.
Amarin’s Vascepa was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 to treat severe hypertriglyceridemia, a condition characterized by high levels of triglycerides (a type of fat) in the blood….